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I try to do the Tim Holtz 12 Tags whenever I have a chance. It is a once a month art challenge that I wish I could make time for every month. To see the tag that Tim Holtz made, click here. Of course, most of the time I do not have all of the products that he has and sometimes I don’t really want my tag to look exactly like his. I was missing quite a few of the necessary products, so I improvised. I like how my tag came out though!

If you want to see how I made this tag, then stick around for the rest of the blog post!

Step 1: Tim used tissue tape, but I didn’t have any. I did have some of the tissue that he offers though. I figured I could just use some multi medium to adhere my tissue. WRONG! This created a barrier so my distress inks would not have a porous surface to soak into. You’ll see what happened later on.

Step 2: Tim scribbled various distress inks onto his craft mat, spritzed water and dragged the tag through. I did the same thing, but I used a mixture of distress and adirondack paints. It would have worked ok, but again, that multi medium messed it up and the paint only stuck in a few areas.

Step 3: In this step Tim stamps a big Butterfly in archival ink and then embosses it with clear embossing powder. He laster masks this image and stencils on top of it. I was crafting away from home and had limited supplies. However, I did bring some Art Acetate from Stamp On It with me and I had a butterfly image. I was crafting with my Mom and we wanted to try the glitter technique with the Art Acetate sheets, so I incorporated that into my tag and made it dimensional by bending the wings up. I didn’t add my butterfly until the very end and I used a little bit of Glossy Accents on the body to adhere it.

Step 4: This is where my tag starts to differ quite a bit. I wanted to do some background stenciling like he did, but not quite yet. Instead I decided to stencil a flower on my tag. I used Luster Mica Powder in Galactic Blue and Hawaiian Orchid. I used a palette knife to lay on some Modeling Paste and then sprinkled the Luster Mica Powders on top while it was still wet. I just tapped off the excess and funneled it back into my jar. Then I spritzed it with water and dried it with my heat tool. You can just set this aside to dry if you don’t want the bubbling that happens when you heat dry modeling paste.

Step 5: Now I wanted to do my background stenciling. I used Tim Holtz Harlequin Layering Tag Stencil with 3 different distress inks. At first, it looked gorgeous, then I realized the distress inks were just going to wipe off the areas where the multi medium was. So, after adding some crinkled seam binding that I colored with the same inks and a Tim Holtz metal embellisment that I found at a scrapbook expo (that I can only guess is a blast from the past, because I’ve never seen it!), I ended up mixing some of the Galactic Blue Luster Mica Powder with the multi Medium and scraped that through the stencil with a palette knife. Multi Medium WILL adhere to Multi Medium, so this finally worked! I also used a sponge dauber to ink the edges of the tag with Salty Ocean Distress ink.

Step 6: I added a Tim Holtz Metal Arrow to cover up the harsh line that I created when applying the Luster Mica Powder/ Multi Medium mix through the harlequin stencil. I also adhered the butterfly at this point.

Step 7: The tag still needed a little something, so I grabbed some of my arrow stamps from one of my Tim Holtz sets and stamped them in Archival Ink. Now the tag is done!

I hope you enjoyed my blog post and thank you so much for stopping by!

I think I finally did it! I made a masculine Birthday card that is actually masculine looking! It seemed impossible, but I think this one qualifies. Most of us struggle with masculine cards because it goes against our femininity, but I think I found something that works. It’s a pretty simple formula and I’ll make sure to use it next time I need a masculine card. Here’s the formula:

1. Find a card sketch online. Any sketch will do, just make sure it’s somewhat geometric, not too busy, and obviously you don’t want flowers drawn in the sketch (well, actually you could just substitute flowers for cogs or gears if that’s the sketch you want)!

2. Pick a simple theme consisting of 3 main ideas and 2 colors, and STICK TO IT! I picked metal, gears, and stenciling. My two colors were silver and black with a white card base. You must keep this simple! It will help you to not over embellish or make the card too busy looking. Feminine cards look great with tons of layers. Just give men one main thing to be impressed with. My card design had a focal image which I decided would be the gears. That is enough.

3. Follow your card sketch. If you finish your card and you think it looks too plain or it needs “this there” or “that over there”, walk away from the card! When you come back in an hour or the next day, if you still think it doesn’t look good, add one thing to fix the problem spot. Not all card sketches are perfect, so you may be right and it needs something extra.

4. You can incorporate multiple techniques, just make sure they work together. I had to use embossing powder to make all of my gears the same color, so I used the same embossing powder on my stenciling. I decided to brush black ink on the edges of the card in a motion that matched the brushed metal on my tape.

5. Use more plain and simple sentiments. I mean both the style of the sentiment and the actual saying itself. If you have anything else you want to say, write it inside the card. The sentiments I used on this card were designed by me and I laser cut stencils so I could use them. I don’t know if I will post these for sale, but if you’re interested, just let me know and I will sell them.

I think those 5 tips should be pretty helpful the next time you need to make a masculine card. If I think of anymore, I will come back here and post them.

We have new Laser Cuts to celebrate Easter! The 5 new laser cuts that we have are all egg themed. This got me wondering, Where do eggs tie in to Easter anyways? From what I could find, there are actually multiple reasons. For Christians, it is supposed to represent Jesus’ emergence from the tomb and resurrection. Christian Tradition also states that Mary Magdalene visited Emperor Tiberias and gave him a red egg as a symbol of the Resurrection. The egg is a symbol of new life and has been used in festivals before Jesus’ time. It is also said that it’s inherited from the symbols of the Norse Goddess Ostara who’s symbols are the egg and the hare. Both of which represent fertility.

I think that’s enough of a history lesson for now! Below you will find pictures and pricing for the new laser cuts. I you want to purchase any of them, just click on the picture!

Easter Eggs Set 2″ Tall $3.19 (also available in 1″ tall for $1.49!)

Woven Basket with Eggs $0.99

Woven Basket $0.99

Happy Easter Egg Sentiment $1.59

I hope you saw something you like! I also hope to have enough time to release a few more before it gets too close to Easter! Thank you for stopping by!

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